I have real trouble with the Red Velvet when I make into cupcakes. They shrink quite a bit after taking them out of the oven. The only thing I do different than the other flavors is add Americolor Red. I noticed the batter is pretty thick so maybe adding some more liquid would help. Any suggestions? This isn't a one time thing. It always happens with the red velvet but I've just always excepted the fact but now I want to really figure it out. And I also use buttermilk instead of creamer. This is what I used:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
2 TBS oil
1 pkg. chocolate pudding mix
Americolor Red

Do you let them cool in the cupcake pans? The only time I'vd had problems w/ cupcakes shrinking is when I let them stay in the pan more than a couple min in the pan after taking out of the oven. Any RV recipe I've ever used is a thicker batter, don't know why

Just edited the last reply to explain better. They seem to start shrinking immediately out of oven. They always taste good and are done and I only leave them in the pan until they cool off a little bit. I did experiment and added a little bit more water to the second baking and they did seem to not shrink as much so maybe I need to add more liquid. I hate to keep experimenting but I really want to figure this out.
Why is it thicker? Is it the chocolate pudding that is making this recipe thicker?

Making it thicker? Or shrinking?

I just read in the new cake doctor book that it is the whole pack of pudding mix that makes your cakes shrink more than usual. She said try adding only half of the pudding pack and that should fix it!
Macs Mom
You're the bomb!!!
I still havenot read from beginning to end, I have jumped around, but you are always on the money. Thanks for all your great ideas!

All my cupcakes were shrinking yesterday. I switched from sour cream to yogurt and that helped some. I tried a couple of different recipes without sourcream or yogurt and they were a little better. Maybe too much fat in the recipe because my vegan cupcakes turned out good. The air pressure was dropping like crazy yesterday. We went from temperature of 73 to a high of 40 today. I wonder if air pressure affects baking?

GrandmaG: Humidity affects baking, so big changes is air pressure probably do also. Our new worship pastor just moved here from Omaha - he is learning about our high humidity!

I googled it and low air pressure is the same as baking at high altitudes. Baking science can be so complicated! This is what I found:

The short answer is that at high altitudes: (1) Water evaporates more quickly because water boils (ie turns into steam) at a lower temperature, and (2) Anything involving air, like leavening (rising), behaves differently at altitude because there is less air and lower air pressure.

You add extra water because...

During the baking process, which means warming from room temperature to final baking temperature, more water will leave (steam off) a high-altitude cake. The extra water compensates for this.

You add extra flour because...

The lower air pressure will cause the cake to rise too much and too quickly, and can also cause the cake to "fall" afterward. I believe the extra flour slows the rising process. Ideally you would "take out" some of the leavening, but in a boxed mix you can't do that, so by increasing the flour you cause roughly the same effect (reduce the leavening-to-flour ratio).

So the big question would be how much more water and flour would a person add? I guess I need help from our cake friends who bake in high altitudes.

GrandmaG - My RV batter is always thinner than most, not quite soupy but something close to it, try adding a bit more buttermilk or using liquid red food coloring maybe?

I finally made a recipe from Cake Doctor's website and it was a basic doctored mix. No extra sugar or flour, more oil and less water and less an egg. That one worked for some reason. The batter was still thick though. I tried everything with the first batter adding more liquid and the Americolor is pretty liquidy. What's your recipe Jana? I know you are a scratch baker. I'm not real good with recipes that use butter.
I think it was the low pressure. It really fell yesterday but is up to normal today. I've made these recipes before and didn't have this kind of trouble.

I used Betty Crocker. I usually use DH but this time I bought a bunch of Betty Crocker's. Evidently the science of the ratio amounts must be off a little bit. I bet if I baked a box mix just like the directions on it then it would come out just fine. It's hard to experiment though when you have the money all wrapped up in it. I guess I'll make a bunch of cake balls.

which is why i'm such a big chicken when it comes to playing around with recipes. things cost so much and our family's budget is tighter than ever in this economy. zero play money!

Good news, it's oil
I use Southern Red Velvet Cake II off CC, it's the same as Cakeman raven's but with AP instead of cake flour (I've made it with both, don't bother with the cake flour it's just as good with AP)

This is awesome!

You know I just got a new 25lb bag of flour from Sam's. Can you get a bad batch of flour?
Jana, I can't find that recipe. Is it just me or is it harder to find a certain recipe now with the different format?

i cannot seem to search the recipes at all. sorry i don't know what "bad" flour would do to a recipe? will sam's let you exchange it?

What would my substitution be to make a Banana WASC? Take out the water? Sour Cream? Add bananas? Not sure. HELP!

Here's three from the recipe files found in Macsmom's signature.

Banana *MacsMom
1 box banana cake mix

1 box white cake mix 6 eggs

2 ¼ c cake flour

2 1/3 c sugar

1 ½ t salt

1 t baking soda

1 pkg banana pudding mix

2 (6oz) containers banana yogurt

1-1/3 c vanilla coffee creamer

1-1/3 c water
1 T vanilla
3 very ripe bananas

1/2 c butter, softened

.

Banana Cake - Michellers
2 - white cake mix
2 c flour
2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 2/3 c half and half
1/4 c oil
2 tsp banana flavoring
2 tsp vanilla flavoring
2 boxes of banana pudding mix
2 c banana drinking yogurt
2 mashed bananas
6 eggs



Banana pudding cake - Lindambc
I make the graham cracker wasc, but using ground chessman or shortbread cookies and all vanilla extract. Then mix 2 cups banana mousse with 1 cup cheesecake mousse. I alternate: mousse - fresh bananas - cake.

Hello CCr's! I made a lemon cake today and used Lindas recipes off the gourment flavor page, I also tried the flower nail method to try and eliminate some of my dome. Well, it tastes wonderful but i baked it for 40 min and the edges are very crisp and the middle is not doughy, but VERY moist... did I do something wrong? I did end up using the whole thing of lemonade, but that was because it just dumped in there... silly me having a brain fart and doing it over the bowl!! But would that cause this?? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the info. I will try to add some bananas. 5 should be enough I hope. I'm off to bake!

I just came across this thread. It is awesome, thanks so much everyone! Couldn't stop reading it!

Sugar Kitty, if you click on the link in my signature it will bring you to a thread with all the google docs of all the recipes from all the threads that have them (this one included) so you can keep track of the recipes.